Complex electronics or mechanical systems often include sub-systems, or units, that are interconnected respectively by electrical wiring or fiber optic cables, or by piping, ductwork, structural members, or the like. Often, a complex system may be installed in a vehicle, such as an aircraft, a space vehicle, a ship, a submarine, a car, or the like. Alternately, a complex system may be installed in a land-based facility such as a power plant, or a building, or the like. Often, when a complex system is installed in a vehicle or a land-based facility, the complex system is interconnected to the vehicle or the land-based facility or to other systems installed in the vehicle or the land-based facility.
When faults are detected in a complex system, troubleshooting must be performed. For example, in an electronic system detected faults may arise as a result of faulty wiring interconnections, such as loose connections, broken wires, broken pins, misalignment between plugs and connectors, or the like. Troubleshooting such a fault using known troubleshooting techniques typically entails determining the circuits that are targets for causing the fault, determining which wiring diagrams or technical manual pages are applicable, locating and copying several volumes of paper documents of the applicable wiring diagrams, and tracing systems interconnections throughout the vehicle or land-based facility. A circuit must be identified, the endpoints of the wires must be determined, pages must be identified in the volumes of paper documents for the endpoints required, and the circuit must be traced across multiple pages of the volumes of paper documents from endpoint to endpoint. Typically, the circuit is highlighted across multiple pages and wire segment numbers are recorded on separate artifacts.
The process described above for troubleshooting also generally applies to development of statements of work for developing, replacing, deleting, or installing complex systems in vehicles or land-based facilities. Regardless of whether the above-described process is performed for troubleshooting or for statement of work preparation, manual tabulation of endpoints may be prone to error. Further, the above-described process is time-consuming and labor-intensive. Further, troubleshooting or statement of work preparation activities may come to a halt if a document containing necessary diagrams cannot be located. Conversely, commencement of troubleshooting efforts or statement of work preparation may be delayed until such a paper document containing a necessary diagram can be located.
Thus, there is an unmet need in the art for a method and system for automatically troubleshooting interconnections that does not rely upon availability of large volumes of paper documents that include necessary diagrams and information.